Bow Tie or Bow?

Although I haven't officially announced it on this blog, my hubby and I are expecting our 2nd little one in mid-December.  Our first, Gabriel - Gabe for short, was born in April of 2010 so he's just a little over 2.  For Gabe, we didn't learn his gender ahead of his birth.  We {okay mostly myself - my hubby really sort of wanted to know} wanted it to be a total surprise when he/she arrived.  This go around, I decided to be nice and let the hubby get his way, but only if I could make it special by hosting a gender reveal party for our families - and ourselves - we didn't even want to know until the day of the party - which happened to be 2 weeks after the ultrasound (the torture!). Roger isn't from Indiana so all of his family is out of town, so we decided to mail his close family gender reveal cookies - they would bite into the center of the cookie and the color would reveal the gender.  His parents also planned on joining us on PlayStation video chat the day of the party - they were to bite into their cookies at the same time we bit into our cupcakes.
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So, to have everything come together so that neither Roger/I found out the gender ahead of the party, we hired a local baker to bake both the cookies and the cupcakes. She got to take a peek at the gender card (which the ultrasound tech slid into a sealed envelope) before we knew. But, to make a long story short there was a snafu with the cookies. The baker baked them too thin and when I went to package them to ship, I accidentally saw the color and thus learned the sex.  Huge disappointment - was in a minor depression all day while I awaited hubby getting home from work. Although he really wanted to wait until the day of the party, I told him that there was no way that I could hold onto the secret from him for 5 days.  So, he and Gabe split one of my freshly baked replacement cookies (which were oatmeal and super thick so no one would find out the gender on accident).




The theme of the party was - Bow Tie or Bow? Soon we will Know! On the day of the party, we requested that everyone wear blue if they thought it was a boy and red if they thought it was a girl. (A few were perplexed as to why I didn't select baby blue and baby pink for the colors - to put it simply - I'm just tired of those traditional colors for babies so I wanted a more fun and unique color combination.)
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When guests arrived, we had them vote on the gender by putting a hash mark on the huge chalkboard that sits above our buffet.




The baker did an awesome job on the bow and bow tie cupcakes.  Although I hate complaining to vendors, I did let her know about the cookie snafu, so I think she went out of her way to make sure the cupcakes were perfect.  Cupcakes were red velvet with cream cheese icing (our favorite). Nom.



Upon arriving, guests were also able to pin on a bow tie if they thought it was a boy ...




or, they could pin or clip on a bow if they guessed it was a girl. Many wore both including my parents - they didn't want to play favorites.




We decorated the food area with red and blue decor accents including pennants.



For the food, I kept it simple. I originally wanted everything to either be bow/bow tie themed or aqua blue or red, but the foods just became too limiting (there aren't many aqua colored foods!). So, since it was a lunch time reveal we served simple sandwiches (chicken salad, shrimp salad and turkey and Swiss roll-ups), bow tie Italian Pasta Salad, Fruit Salad with Granola, and an assortment of chips. Instead of eating off traditional paper plates, guests ate off of red deli baskets (the kind you get at diners, drive-ins, and cute hamburger joints). For drinks, I did a build your own flavored lemonade buffet where guests could add fresh strawberries, blueberries or raspberries to their lemonade.



After lunch and mingling, we did the gender reveal.  Above is my son with his cupcake. The photo makes it looks as if he's behaving with his cupcake.  So, not true - by this point he'd already torn off the fondant topper (I quickly put it back on for a quick photo) and within about 30 seconds of this photo he was covered in cupcake icing and crumbs. Now for reveal time ...




It's a boy!




So, the majority of our guests/family got the gender correct. :)
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Gabe is so going to love having a little brother. I'm sure they'll grow up being best buddies!
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To view many more photos of the party, including the gender reveal cookies, just click here.
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Products {I created most of the items to keep it on a budget}.
Gender Reveal Invites: Pinwhirls
Gender Reveal Cookie Cards: Pinwhirls
Cupcake Wrappers: Pinwhirls
Pennants: Pinwhirls
Mini Pennants: Pinwhirls
Food Label Tents: Pinwhirls
Bow Ties: I made these as well using this blog as a guide. Although I glued all of mine and did not sew. I also glued onto simple pin backs.
Bows: I made these too. Just tied a simple bow and glued half of them onto pin backs and half onto hair clips.
Ribbon for Bow Ties and Bows: Jo Ann Fabrics
Red Deli Baskets with Deli Paper: I originally bought some at Jo Anns, but they did not have enough. I found them at Gordon Food Service for much cheaper.
Red Polka Dot Napkins: Wal Mart
Aqua Blue Polka Dot Napkins: Target
Shrimp Salad, Chicken Salad, and Chicken Rollers, Croissants, and Pretzel Rolls: Costco
Fruit Salad: Recipe - I added a ton more fruit than noted in recipe including raspberries, blueberries, fresh peaches, grapes. All from Costco.
Homemade Granola: Recipe
Italian Bow Tie Pasta Salad: Recipe